LABOUR'S PART IN THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 296, 3 September 1918, Page 5

LABOUR'S PART IN THE WAR

SPEECH S BY MR. LLOYD GEORGE

London, September 1. Mr. Lloyd George, speaking at a Government- luncheon tendered to Mr, , .Samuel Gompers, president of the' American Federation of Labour, referring to Labour's part in the war,' said that victory meant more to those' who had got to earn their, bread by , the sweat of tlieir brow than to any ( , other class.. It was significant that all; the genuine leaders of Labour in thej Allied countries were convinced that, victory was essential to what-ihey had been ohampioning all their lives. German Labour was .becoming more andj ' more convinced .that it could never j achieve its emancipation without over-/ throwing Prussian militarism. Each German election showed that that' force was growing. Wo wero achiev-! .ing by the war not merely security toi the world against the menace of I'rus-. sian militarism, but tho emancipation! of German Labour from the bondage! it endured.—Renter.

LABOUR DAY MKSAGE BY PRESIDENT WILSON New York, September 1. f President Wilson has issued a Lah-J our Day message; v After : ■ reviewing \ the Gorman aims and methods, he says:— v '■ ■ " "The world cannot be safe, men's lives secure, or their rights asserted bo long as. Governments like-thqs'e which , drew Austria and Germany "into war are permitted to control the destinies' of men and nations.' H is a war inj which industry must sustain the army, The labourers at home are as.psseu« tial as the fighters in the battle. _T<r fail to win would imperil everything that Labour has striven-for or held dear since freedom was first had. Let us make this a day of consecration in which to devote ourselves nithoutpauso \ or limit to setting our country and the. whole world free. Tho nation is of a single mind. .It is-taking counsel of. no special class, and serving no private; or single interest. We lealise, as we; have never realised before, that wo are' comrades dependent upon one another; iiTqsistible when united, powerless when divided. So join hands, ,aud lead the. world to a new and hotter ,day."—Aus.N.Z. Cable Assn.

(Rfic. September 2, 8.10 p.m.) \ Washington,-; Septeniber 1. '. "The President! tells r j organised Labour that every tool is a weapon which, if abandoned, will render our rifles useless in France. This war is as much, a workmen's war as a soldiers' war. , , The soldiers at the front know that \ this is so, and tko knowledge steels | their muscles. They are the crusad-ers."—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. ■ ■ ' ■ MR. HENDERSON'S VIEWS" London, September 1. Mr. Arthur Henderson/addressing the Labour Conference at Birmingham, admitted that he had gone too far in his speech at Northampton in July • when he declared that the German Socialist Majority Party was willing to discuss peace on the basis of Labour's principles. He was bitterly disappointed. Mr. Henderson added that Labour's international policy was not_ to compromise with the Gorman militarists, but was inspired by a desire to win the war for the freedom of democracy. They believed the German. ■ Government would, be compelled to .yield to the combined I pressure of tho Allied armies and of the disillusioned and deceived German nition. Labour • desired a victory of ideals, not a smashing of Germany and a peace dictated at the point of the sword.-Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.' • \

Mr. Henderson, speaking at the Northampton conference cf Labour organisations on July 13, said that tho German Majority Socialists drew up a document which they entrusted to Tvoelstra, tho Dutch Socialist, to present to the British Labour Conference. The action of the British Government in refusing Truelstra permission to land prevented this document reaching Britain, but a summary had been 1 received showing that the German' Majority Socialists wero ready_ to.take part in an,international Socialist conversation on the basis of the proposals which tho noutral Stockholm Socialists had drawn up.